The preparation of metal ions modified titanium dioxide and its application in water purification and disinfection

Wu, L.;
(2010)
The preparation of metal ions modified titanium dioxide and its application in water purification and disinfection.
Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London).

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Conventional water purification and disinfection generally involve potential hazardous substances, some of which known to be carcinogenic in nature. Titanium dioxide photocatalytic processes provide an effective route to destroy hazardous organic contaminants and bacteria, being operational in the UV domain with a potential application in the use of solar radiation. This work explores the possibility of the removal of organic pollutants and microbial contaminant by the application of TiO2 based photocatalysts. The production of series of metal ions doped or undoped TiO2 were carried out by sol gel method and wet impregnation method. Photoreactivity tests were carried out in a solar box with two UVA lamps. The photodegration of phenol and photodisinfection of E. coli in aquatic solution were selected as probe as a measure of photoreactivity. It is found that none of the doped TiO2 show any improvement compared with undoped TiO2 towards phenol degradation. In contrast, Cu doped TiO2 exhibits enhanced results from E. coli photodisinfection. The material properties of prepared photocatalysts were characterized in an attempt to understand the relation among preparation parameters (calcination temperature, the variations of dopant and the level of doping, etc.), material properties and the final photoactvity. The structural characterization includes Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).
Some field simulation experiments are also included in this research. The results of which proved TiO2 based photocatalytic process to be a promising alternative in the future application in water disinfection and degradation, especially in those tropical developing countries with abundant of solar irradiation and insufficient water sanitation. In the last part of this PhD work, a continuous flow photoreactor was designed. The effectiveness of the system was tested and fitted to mathematical models to describe the bacterial disinfection rate.

Type:

Thesis
(Doctoral)

Title:

The preparation of metal ions modified titanium dioxide and its application in water purification and disinfection